At the end of the aeon of Pieces, the zeitgeist is a storm. Wisdom comes from within if we question authority, and our actions determine our identity. In like a lion, out like a lamb, the storm wind blows. Beware Caesar the ides of March are come.
"... shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. "

Monday, September 29, 2008

In an amazing turn of events the US Congress and Senate have refused to rubber stamp the Bush administrations economic bail out plan for wall street!

I am shocked, I thought all these political fat cats had been bought and paid for years ago. Apparently the out cry from the people screaming to add transparent checks and balances to any $700-Billion bail out plan somehow got through to the narcissistic, corrupt, and ignorant representatives in this election year.

So, WE DID IT. The majority of our voting population, realizing we really have nothing left to loose from a crashing stock market, because we don't own stock, we don't have homes, or good jobs, or anything of real value, like the economic opportunity of upward mobility based upon a just and fair objective competition of individual merit. Just a bleak future, dominated by corporations and crushed by government. So, our only choice pay for the bailout by devaluing the dollar and saddling our children with insurmountable debt far into the future, or watching the stock-market fall and crash, which will level the playing field between the rich and poor, we choose to let them fall!

Now what? I think we need great changes, yes we need new politics, throw the bums out, but this economy still needs to be stabilized with a RATIONAL and JUST Fiscal Plan. I suggest that we follow the Kucinich Doctrine, a complete plan to build transparency and ethics into the system.

Force your congress person to read this plan and implement these new rules if they wish to install a bail out plan:1) Tell your friends2) Contact your representatives3) Support those who are fighting for your interests

insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:

1) Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation

2) Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries

3) Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down: -- a) resignations of management -- b) givebacks of executive compensation packages -- c) limitations on executive compensation -- d) admission by CEO's of what went wrong and how, prior to any government bailout

4) Demands for transparencey-- a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down-- b) with respect to Treasury's dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout

5) An equity position for the taxpayers-- a) some form of ownership of assets

6) Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying.

7) A sunset clause on the legislation

8) Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust.

9) A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts

10) A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts

And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure.

USE COMMON SENSE! WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE! IF THIS FAILS, WE THE PEOPLE WILL BE ECONOMICALLY EQUAL TO THE WEALTHY ELETE AND THERE WILL BE NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL, LIMITED ONLY BY YOUR ABILITY. IF THIS WORKS, WE WILL HAVE THE REFORMS IN THE SYSTEM WE NEED TO REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE SYSTEM WILL CONTINUE.

Let me cut to the chase. The biggest robbery in the history of this country is taking place as you read this. Though no guns are being used, 300 million hostages are being taken. Make no mistake about it: After stealing a half trillion dollars to line the pockets of their war-profiteering backers for the past five years, after lining the pockets of their fellow oilmen to the tune of over a hundred billion dollars in just the last two years, Bush and his cronies -- who must soon vacate the White House -- are looting the U.S. Treasury of every dollar they can grab. They are swiping as much of the silverware as they can on their way out the door.

No matter what they say, no matter how many scare words they use, they are up to their old tricks of creating fear and confusion in order to make and keep themselves and the upper one percent filthy rich. Just read the first four paragraphs of the lead story in last Monday's New York Times and you can see what the real deal is:

"Even as policy makers worked on details of a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, Wall Street began looking for ways to profit from it.

"Financial firms were lobbying to have all manner of troubled investments covered, not just those related to mortgages.

"At the same time, investment firms were jockeying to oversee all the assets that Treasury plans to take off the books of financial institutions, a role that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars a year in fees.

"Nobody wants to be left out of Treasury's proposal to buy up bad assets of financial institutions."Unbelievable. Wall Street and its backers created this mess and now they are going to clean up like bandits. Even Rudy Giuliani is lobbying for his firm to be hired (and paid) to "consult" in the bailout.

The problem is, nobody truly knows what this "collapse" is all about. Even Treasury Secretary Paulson admitted he doesn't know the exact amount that is needed (he just picked the $700 billion number out of his head!). The head of the congressional budget office said he can't figure it out nor can he explain it to anyone.

And yet, they are screeching about how the end is near! Panic! Recession! The Great Depression! Y2K! Bird flu! Killer bees! We must pass the bailout bill today!! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Falling for whom? NOTHING in this "bailout" package will lower the price of the gas you have to put in your car to get to work. NOTHING in this bill will protect you from losing your home. NOTHING in this bill will give you health insurance.

Health insurance? Mike, why are you bringing this up? What's this got to do with the Wall Street collapse?

It has everything to do with it. This so-called "collapse" was triggered by the massive defaulting and foreclosures going on with people's home mortgages. Do you know why so many Americans are losing their homes? To hear the Republicans describe it, it's because too many working class idiots were given mortgages that they really couldn't afford. Here's the truth: The number one cause of people declaring bankruptcy is because of medical bills. Let me state this simply: If we had had universal health coverage, this mortgage "crisis" may never have happened.

This bailout's mission is to protect the obscene amount of wealth that has been accumulated in the last eight years. It's to protect the top shareholders who own and control corporate America. It's to make sure their yachts and mansions and "way of life" go uninterrupted while the rest of America suffers and struggles to pay the bills. Let the rich suffer for once. Let them pay for the bailout. We are spending 400 million dollars a day on the war in Iraq. Let them end the war immediately and save us all another half-trillion dollars!

I have to stop writing this and you have to stop reading it. They are staging a financial coup this morning in our country. They are hoping Congress will act fast before they stop to think, before we have a chance to stop them ourselves. So stop reading this and do something -- NOW! Here's what you can do immediately:

1. Call or e-mail Senator Obama. Tell him he does not need to be sitting there trying to help prop up Bush and Cheney and the mess they've made. Tell him we know he has the smarts to slow this thing down and figure out what's the best route to take. Tell him the rich have to pay for whatever help is offered. Use the leverage we have now to insist on a moratorium on home foreclosures, to insist on a move to universal health coverage, and tell him that we the people need to be in charge of the economic decisions that affect our lives, not the barons of Wall Street.

2. Take to the streets. Participate in one of the hundreds of quickly-called demonstrations that are taking place all over the country (especially those near Wall Street and DC).

When you screw up in life, there is hell to pay. Each and every one of you reading this knows that basic lesson and has paid the consequences of your actions at some point. In this great democracy, we cannot let there be one set of rules for the vast majority of hard-working citizens, and another set of rules for the elite, who, when they screw up, are handed one more gift on a silver platter. No more! Not again!

P.S. Having read further the details of this bailout bill, you need to know you are being lied to. They talk about how they will prevent golden parachutes. It says NOTHING about what these executives and fat cats will make in SALARY. According to Rep. Brad Sherman of California, these top managers will continue to receive million-dollar-a-month paychecks under this new bill. There is no direct ownership given to the American people for the money being handed over. Foreign banks and investors will be allowed to receive billion-dollar handouts. A large chunk of this $700 billion is going to be given directly to Chinese and Middle Eastern banks. There is NO guarantee of ever seeing that money again.

P.P.S. From talking to people I know in DC, they say the reason so many Dems are behind this is because Wall Street this weekend put a gun to their heads and said either turn over the $700 billion or the first thing we'll start blowing up are the pension funds and 401(k)s of your middle class constituents. The Dems are scared they may make good on their threat. But this is not the time to back down or act like the typical Democrat we have witnessed for the last eight years. The Dems handed a stolen election over to Bush. The Dems gave Bush the votes he needed to invade a sovereign country. Once they took over Congress in 2007, they refused to pull the plug on the war. And now they have been cowered into being accomplices in the crime of the century. You have to call them now and say "NO!" If we let them do this, just imagine how hard it will be to get anything good done when President Obama is in the White House. THESE DEMOCRATS ARE ONLY AS STRONG AS THE BACKBONE WE GIVE THEM. CALL CONGRESS NOW.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The U.S. government has been turned into an engine that accelerates the wealth upwards into the hands of a few. The Wall Street bailout, the Iraq War, military spending, tax cuts to the rich, and a for-profit health care system are all about the acceleration of wealth upwards. And now, the American people are about to pay the price of the collapse of the $513 trillion Ponzi scheme of derivatives. Yes, that’s half a quadrillion dollars. Our first trillion dollar compression bandage will hardly stem the hemorrhaging of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme built on debt "de-leverages."

Does anyone seriously think that our public and private debts of some $45 trillion will be paid? That the administration's growth of the federal debt from $5.6 trillion to $9.8 trillion while borrowing another trillion dollars from Social Security has nothing to do with this? Does anyone not see that when we spend nearly $16,000 for every family of four in our society for the military each year that we are heading over the cliff?

This is a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. Just as FDR had to save capitalism after Wall Street excesses, we have to re-invigorate our economy with real - not imaginary - growth. It does not address the never-ending war on the middle class.

The same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves.

The double standard is stunning: their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses.

This bailout will not bring real jobs back to America. It will not bring back jobs that make things. It does not rebuild our schools, streets, neighborhoods, parks or bridges. The major product of this financial economy is now debt. Industrial capitalism has been destroyed.

In the next few days I will push for a plan that includes equity for every American in any taxpayer investment in this so-called bail-out plan. Since the bailout will cost each and every American about $2,300, I have proposed the creation of a United States Mutual Trust Fund, which will take control of $700 billion in stock assets, convert those assets to shares, and distribute $2,300 worth of shares to new individual savings accounts in the name of each and every American.

I will also insist that all of the following issues be considered in whatever Congress passes:

1) Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation

2) Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries

3) Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down:--a) resignations of management--b) givebacks of executive compensation packages--c) limitations on executive compensation--d) admission by CEO's of what went wrong and how, prior to any government bailout

4) Demands for transparency--a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down--b) with respect to Treasury's dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout

5) An equity position for the taxpayers --a) some form of ownership of assets

6) Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying.

7) A sunset clause on the legislation

8) Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust.

9) A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts

10) A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts

And, most importantly, some mechanism for direct assistance to homeowners saddled with unreasonable or unmanageable mortgages, as well as protection for renters who have lived up to their obligation but fall victim to financial tragedy when the property they live in undergoes foreclosure.

These are just some thoughts on the run. You will hear more from me tomorrow.

Today's banking crisis is the THIRD trillion dollar plusUS-caused financial meltdown in the last twenty years.

Each one of these crises came into being through the same basicmechanism...the fraudulent over-valuing of financial assets byWall Street - with a "wink and a nod" (and sometimes a lot more)from the White House and Congress.

The fraudulently valued assets stimulate the economy, impartthe illusion of health and then, inevitably, the fraud goes too far and the whole house of card comes painfully crashing back to earth.

The three trillion dollar plus frauds were:

Fraud #1: The so-called "Savings and Loan Crisis" of the late 80s

Fraud #2: The so-called "Tech Bubble" of the late 90s

Fraud #3: The so-called "Credit Crisis" of today

*** How the scam works

The mechanism of these frauds is simplicity itself...

...Take a shaky financial asset and blow up its valueand then sell as much of it as you can.

In the "Savings and Loan Crisis," the instrument was junk bonds.

In the "Tech Bubble" it was Internet stocks.

In the "Credit Crisis" it was individual mortgages collected into pools and then re-sold to investors.

In each case, normal, well established "bread and butter" financial principles were consciously thrown away by Wall Street with no hint of protest from federal regulators.

Junk bonds caused the Saving and Loan crisis whichresulted in the US taking over the assets of hundreds ofbanks and selling them back over time to the marketplaceat fire sale prices.

Junk bonds, which caused the "Savings and Loan Crisis" were shaky bonds that were pumped up by deliberate misrepresentation and what I call "staged dealing."

Bonds get their value from two things: the amount of interest they pay and how safe they are.

"Junk" bonds have to pay higher interest because they are lesssafe. Therefore, until the "Savings and Loan Crisis," savingsand loan banks banks were not allowed by law to buy them and callthem assets.

Reagan/Bush changed all this and then a group of Wall Streetfraudsters used the new loophole to kick off an orgy of junk bond creation and junk bond selling to banks and insurancecompanies.

The crooks would deal the junk bonds back and forthamongst themselves thereby establishing their "value"and then they'd sell them to outsiders. The bondsthen became "assets" which could be borrowed againstand leveraged to buy even more bonds.

When the bonds failed, the banks failed and in stepped theUS government to "fix" the problem that it created at the costof at least one trillion dollars to US tax payers.

Deja vu, eh?

***The "Tech Bubble" dissected

The instrument of fraud in the "Tech Bubble" was Internetstocks, start ups in particular.

A stock gets its value from the underlying company's sales, its growth and its overall prospects for the future.

Pre-tech bubble, companies used to have to prove themselvesby being in existence for several years before they couldbe sold on major exchanges. That standard was thrown away during the tech bubble.

To pump of their values, the companies engaged in"staged dealing" just like the junk bond crooks.

Company #1 would "sell" 20 million dollars in bannerads to Company #2 which would in turn "sell" 20 millionin banner ads to Company #1.

In fact, nobody sold anybody anything. Company #2 ranads for Company #1 and billed it for them. Company #1ran ads for Company #2 and billed for an equal amount.

These should have been called media trades not sales, butWall Street was happy to claim them as legitimate cash salesand then use the sales numbers to fraudulently value thesecompanies - many of them totally worthless - in thehundreds of millions and sometimes even the billions.

***The "Credit Crisis" dissected

By now, you see how the scheme works.

It's not complicated at all.

You take near worthless pieces of paper (junk bonds, stockof start up Internet companies, etc.) and declare them tobe good as gold.

Then you create as many junk bonds and Internet start upstocks as you get and sell them as fast as you can.

In the case of our current crisis, the instrument of fraudwas so-called sub-prime mortgages.

Previously, sub-prime mortgages had very little trading value. Only people in the sub-prime industry itself dealt in them and forgood reason. They're tricky to value and packed with financialperil.

But Wall Street changed all that.

Wall Street said: "If we take LOTS of these mortgages and assemble them into large pools and then slice and dice the pools in various ways, we can sell the slices to banks and other investors as AAApaper."

It sounds crazy, doesn't it?

If the underlying pieces of paper are garbage, how does assemblinga whole bunch of garbage into one place make it "better?"

It doesn't, of course, and this is a principle even a three year old child can understand.

But greed and the need to pump up a shaky economy for propagandapurposes are two very strong motivators.

Banks created these mortgage pools, sold them to each other,and they by virtue of these "staged sales" declared them valuable.

Do you recognize the pattern now?

If you do, then you are now smarter than all the assembled j@ck@sses who do financial reporting because they apparently can't - or won't.

This is the THIRD trillion-dollar plus fraud driven financial meltdown in twenty years and apparently no one in the financial news media can see how it happened.

***But there's more...

Junk bonds were mass manufactured as fast as the crooks could invent them. Ditto for Internet stocks.

But how did hundreds of billions of dollars worth of "toxic" mortgages suddenly come into being?

Why did the mortgage industry change its lending standards soradically and so suddenly to make their creation possible?

And why did real estate lending regulators in all 50 states - because real estate lending is a STATE-level issue not a federal - go along with it?

Here's where it gets very interesting...

The fact is state-level lending regulators were VERY concerned about what was going on. They have been for years.

And they not only expressed their concern clearly, they also took SERIOUS concerted legal action to stop lenders from making bad real estate loans to their citizens.

(Most of the sub-prime loans in the news so much today were designed to screw the people who borrowed the money and can rightly be called "predatory" loans.)

Guess who stopped the states from enforcing their own time-proven real estate lending laws and thus created the raw material thatmade the current "Credit Crisis" possible?

*** The trillion dollar plus question

If you're a US taxpayer, you're going to pay for this fraudso you might as well know who did it to you.

His initials are GB.

You know him well.

But perhaps more interesting is the name of the person who single-handedly rallied first state attorneys general and then fellow governors to fight the creation of these loans and who in the process became Public Enemy #1 to the Bush Administration...

If you follow "silly" US political scandals, you'll recognize his name instantly when you hear it.

And you will *finally* understand why he was quickly and permanently assassinated politically earlier this year.

Had ES been allowed to "live," he would have been in position to remind everyone every day of who made the current meltdown possible.

Instead, he was silenced very effectively. Not with a bullet in the back of the head, but the net effect was just the same.

So effective was his assassination that no one can even

mention his name in connection with today's crisis withoutrisking ridicule, or worse.

Last note:

The crisis this fraud has created is *exponentially* biggerthan the S & L and Tech Bubble combined.

It's not going to be resolved by a quick "patch up" and will likely have the same impact on the current generation that the depression of the 1930s had on its parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The United States is talking about sending in more troops to Iraq. We already know that our government has extended the tour of duty for members of the armed service. That they have sent people back for a second tour when they thought they were only going to be there for a first tour. That 40% of the people in Iraq today are either guardsmen or guardswomen or reservists. We never anticipated being in combat under those conditions.

We also know as the United States continues to get deeper and deeper into this conflict, there is no question that there will be a draft. There are bills sponsored by both parties in Congress to create a draft. In 2004 the selective service system put up on their website a call for people to staff local draft boards. There was a commotion about it immediately after that went up; they took it down. There's a substantial amount of money in the budget to be able to put into effect the structure to create a draft.With high stakes at hand, America is getting deeper and deeper into this situation in Iraq. It's getting much worse every day.

Now we're being told by people in both parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, that we have to stay the course. We can't "cut and run." We have to go in and finish the job that we went in there to do. We're hearing all kinds of euphemisms that are frankly are vaguely reminiscent of the kinds of euphemisms that we heard in the sixties, which caused the United States to make a deeper and deeper commitment in a place called Vietnam.

There was a point in the early sixties where the casualty level of Americans was below 100. Then it went into the hundreds. Then it went into the thousands. Then it went into the tens of thousands. And all the time we kept wading into this war in Vietnam, people just kept talking as if it was just going to end. And there was almost this obliviousness to the fact that we kept getting in deeper and deeper. And the casualties kept piling up. And the more lives that were lost, the more people kept insisting, "Well, we've got to stay there."

Historian Barbara Tuchman wrote a book some of you may be familiar with called "The March of Folly," where she traced throughout human history how governments pursued what they fully knew to be the wrong course of action, but once it proved to be wrong, they kept doing it anyhow. She described it as a kind of "wooden-headedness."

"Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts. It is epitomized in a historian's statement about Phillip II of Spain, the surpassing wooden-head of all sovereigns: 'No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his belief in its essential excellence.'"

-- Barbara Tuchman, "The March of Folly"

This country surely knows that we've gone in the wrong direction in Iraq. But we're somehow committed to continuing it. We're putting in more troops, more resources, running the risk of precipitating a holy war in that region, and setting this country on a path of separating ourselves from the world community.

It's time for this nation, Democrats and Republicans alike, to come together and oppose all efforts to reinstate the draft. For the sake of our children and our future, we must end this wrongful war.

From Elaine Brower and Prachi Noor, members of the World Can't Wait National Steering Committee:

The police repression of anti-war protest that took place at both national political conventions deeply angered members of the peace community, as well as the many people in this country who were shocked at the behavior of law enforcement. There are those who might believe this brutalization of those who were peacefully demonstrating, with permits issued by the City, and which people believe is their 'right' under the Constitution, was an aberration or "over-reaction."

However, what we saw was am emerging police state further testing new weapons and tactics, and learning how much they can get away with.

In St. Paul, the repression began with over a year ago with infiltration by paid informers of protest organizers, and "pre-emptive" raids on private homes and meeting places, leading to overtly political "conspiracy" charges. Police from around the country were led by Homeland Security in the wanton use of concussion grenades thrown in succession at retreating protesters; smoke bombs; an array of tear gas & pepper gas; wooden batons (bats); weapons, including AR15 automatic assault rifles drawn on unarmed and passive people; riot control horses and dump trucks with blades down as if to scoop up anyone in the streets.

This fierceness of control is what is done in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 7 ½ years in our names by our military and mercenaries alike, and what has and always will be done in communities of color when no one is looking. But now we see it going high-tech, and co-ordinated with charges of "furtherance of terrorism" under the Minnesota version of the PATRIOT Act.

818 people were arrested in St. Paul, including nearly 40 media from alternative and mainstream outlets. The "RNC8," members of "The RNC Welcoming Committee," are charged with felony "intent to riot in furtherance of terrorism" and face a sentence of 7 ½ years.

People of conscience must stand together in outrage and not accept this repression from the government on the people. We cannot allow these actions to go quietly into the night and forgotten. A massive outpouring of support for the RNC8 is critical. Every detail of the illegitimate detentions in Guantanamo-like conditions, beatings, taserings, denial of medication, medical treatment, food, legal representation and threats must be uncovered, denounced, and never repeated.

We are seizing the opportunity to have our voices heard in unison, denouncing the fascist direction of this country. It is with the utmost urgency and for the sake of stopping the police state and reversing this course that WE WILL NOT BE SILENT.

By signing this statement we pledge to do everything we can to call attention to, and demand justice for those unjustly arrested and charged at the Denver and St. Paul protests.

Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime

The last days of the American Empire are near. The destruction of our civil rights of dissent and protest are a symptom of this fall. It is the duty of all good citizens to stand against tyranny. This is the cause passed down by our forefathers, now it is ours to earn, we must survive or die trying.

Friday, September 12, 2008

I realize that the vast majority of American citizens are oblivious to the fact that their country has been pulled out from under them. Most Americans are the uneducated products of the defunct public school system, or worse ignorant immigrants who still shackled with despotism of their home countries fear reprisal if they speak up about anything. Living pay-check to pay-check tends to keep you hungry, afraid than if you rock the boat you might be fired and starve in this land of the free. Above all Americans are lazy, willingly lulled to sleep by entertaining TV and sports shows that vivify them with pseudo-intellectual pursuits, so they can deny their failures and pretend that they are not slaves.

Since the farce of an election in 2000, when the Supreme Court overstepped itself and illegally judged the presidential election without grounds or president, the Executive Administration of George W. Bush, with the help of the corrupt Congress and Senate, have 'adjusted' the Constitution of the United States to make themselves more powerful. They imposed limits on our freedoms, took the checks and balances away and freed themselves to write signing-statements that effectively put the executive administration above and beyond the law.

All this is necessary, they claim, to fight the "War on Terror". Using the concept of the "unitary executive" backed by the specter of the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001, (attacks that might have been prevented if not for their own incompetence) they have played upon the fears and ignorance of America's people. Warping reality with illegal propaganda and flat out lies, they committed our military to endless illegal wars of empire. Foolishly, the majority of our citizens followed them like sheep to slaughter. As our sons die or are irrevocably maimed by the psychological wounds inflicted by the experience of atrocities committed in unnecessary wars, most Americans go on with day to day life, living a beach party, without sacrifice, as their future is slowly sucked away.

Now we face an uncertain future. One without education, or affordable healthcare, where our potential is no longer limitless, but determined by the size of your trust fund. We have let go of the American Dream, and replaced it with the competitive paradigm of capitalism, where each person is out on there own, fighting with their brothers for scraps dropped from above. And still the proud idealists, independent, self-reliant Americans, hard working and defiant, still deluding themselves with the possibility that they can become one of the over-class, win the lottery, or boost themselves up with non-exestant boot-straps, continue to support the bankrupt causes of those who believe themselves their betters based upon the quantity of income they command.

Worse, some of our weak minded Americans have fallen for the oldest con in the book, and accepted the promise of eternal rewards in the hereafter. For that they follow willingly the corrupt and mistaken preachers who live like parasites off their voluntary tithe, and willingly vote as they are told, for those politicians who play to their religious bias and prejudices. Their mistake, believing themselves to be guilty of sin without cause, and just as guilty as those who take them by the nose. Pity the fools who curse this democracy without thought, they know not what they do.

Now, here we stand, on the edge of the knife again. We have been here before, in 1776, and 1860, or maybe 1968, and we have forgotten our legacy. Once we make the choice there will be no going back. Either America will recreate itself, renew itself, reclaim itself, or it will fall back into the dust of history, as the grand experiment that ultimately failed.

We have a great battle ahead, the economy, your homes, education and healthcare, the criminal industrial complex, endless wars, a world of uncertainty awaits. The question is will you allow those who would control you to manipulate you with fear, or will you join the fight and create change. Will you dare to hope.

"We must be the change we have been waiting for."

None of the problems we face are insurmountable, we have the resources, and with hard work and will, we can right the ship. But if we allow our US Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our freedoms to fall as casualty to our failure to elect the right people in the past, then none of it will matter. We can fight, and bail out all the banks, and give people back their homes, and feed the hungry, and sacrifice till it costs our children their potential, but none of it will make any difference without our freedom. Without the Constitution this is just another kingdom, just another dictatorship, a police state called America. Without the protections of our nation, America is nothing. That founding document is what unites us, it is what binds us, it is what makes ours a country that inspires and protects the people's of the world.

What Bush and his ilk have done is unforgivable. They have attacked our Constitution and claimed our power, our freedom, for their own. Like vampires they suck out the lifeblood of our country. Stealing our honor, our potential, our very promise, and using our powers to enrich themselves while inflicting unjust suffering on peoples we had no cause to harm. Atrocities committed in our name are still our responsibility, and we must someday pay for their elite arrogance, but the first step in saving our ship of state is to patch the hole they have torn in her hull.

We must find the strength to face our failures, to rebel against the mistakes we allowed to be made, and renew the checks and balances our fathers died to protect. We must hold a light up to the abuses of power, and hold those accountable who have tarnished our freedoms. We must do the hard work to redefine the powers of the executive, restore transparency in the face of secrecy, demand that all men be held within the laws. No more can we allow our ignorance to excuse us our duty. We must learn, we must understand, we must digest and incorporate the truth of our failures if we are ever to restore our promise. America is the one country on earth that has had the courage to deny kings, now we must rebuke the elitist billionaires who have stolen our potential by buying our government.

Many people think that the American Dream is to start with nothing and become rich, but that is not my dream. My dream is to create a just world where any person can, with honest hard work, fulfill their greatest potential, and together we can succeed at maximizing our freedoms, together, without bloodshed or destructive competition.

Money may be the master of you who dare not question authority, for fear of exposing your weaknesses, but for those who hold higher values, who would face such fear, and gain the courage to stand for something greater than yourself, for you I willing dedicate my life. It is not a sacrifice, it is the price we all must pay to earn our freedom.

I challenge you, move beyond, break your shackles. If we don't hold something above our greed, if we value nothing more than money, then there is no place left for us to go. We have dominated the world with our capital, we have bought all the weapons, and paid off all the terrorists. We effectively own the world. The question now is what kind of world will it be?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Remembering 9/11 and Moving Towards a Re-United States of America by Dennis J KucinichSeptember11, 2008

We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda... It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which followed... As we were all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 9/11.

9/11 Op-Ed article by Dennis Kucinich:

America must move from the errant, retributive justice of 9/11 to a healing, restorative process of truth and reconciliation.

Before the Congress adjourns, I will bring forth a new proposal for the establishment of a National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, which will have the power to compel testimony and gather official documents to reveal to the American people not only the underlying deception which has divided us, but in that process of truth seeking set our nation on a path of reconciliation.

We suffer in our remembrance of 9/11, because of the terrible loss of innocent lives on that grim day. We also suffer because 9/11 was seized as an opportunity to run a political agenda, which has set America on a course of the destruction of another nation and the destruction of our own Constitution.

And we have become less secure as a result of the warped practice of pursing peace through the exercise of pre-emptive military strength.

It is not simply 9/11 that needs to be remembered. We also need to remember the politicization of 9/11 and the polarizing narrative which followed, locking us into endless conflict, a war on terror which has wrought further terror worldwide and which has severely damaged our standing worldwide as an honorable, compassionate nation. As we were all victims of 9/11, so we have become victims of the interpretation of 9/11.

Our government's external response to 9/11 was to attack a nation which did not attack us. Indeed on the first anniversary of 9/11, the Bush administration issued a well-publicized stern warning to Iraq which was part of a campaign to induce people to believe Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

The deliberate, systematic connection of Iraq with 9/11 has led America into a philosophical and moral cul-de-sac as over one million Iraqis and over 4155 US soldiers have died in a war which will cost over $3 trillion. Additionally, soldiers from 23 other countries have died in the Iraq war.

We attempt to unite Iraq by further dividing it. We talk about restoring Iraq while taking steps to place control of its vast oil wealth in the hands of US oil giants. And we intend to impose upon the Iraqi people the cost of rebuilding a country which our government ruined, keeping a once prosperous nation lashed to debt and poverty for a long, long time. Iraq has paid for 9/11. We all continue to pay for 9/11.

The heartbreaking loss of the lives and injuries to America troops further binds us to the Administration's illogic of the Iraq war: We remember our troops' sacrifice by demanding more sacrifice; we support our troops by continuing the war.

The dominant color of our new national security since 911 is neither red, white nor blue. Everyday is orange. Everyday reminders of fear of 9/11 become banal.. Yet we no longer hear the airport announcements nor see the orange colored warnings because they have commonplace standards in our new national security state, as is the Patriot Act, wiretapping, and a host of invasions of privacy and diminution of civil liberties. The Constitution has been roundly attacked by the very people who took an oath to defend it.

There is a powerful desire across America for change, not necessarily from control by one political party to another, but a change from living with lies to living with truth.

Over two dozen nations, facing peril within and without, deeply divided by politics and war have travelled down a path of restoring civil society through a formal process of reconciliation. At some point within each of those countries it was understood that the way forward is shown through the light of truth. This process is not without pain because it requires a willingness to study evidence to which eyes had been averted and ears had been closed. But in the process of truth and reconciliation, nations found new strength, new resolve, new commitment.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation enabled that nation to come to grips with its past through a public confessional, bringing forward those who committed crimes and having the power to grant amnesty for full disclosure of crimes against the people. Of course, our path may necessarily be different: High US government officials stand accused in Impeachment petitions of violating national and international law. Our continued existence as a democracy may depend upon how thoroughly we seek the truth. I will call upon the America people to join me in supporting this effort.

The truth can move us forward, as a unified whole, so that we can one day become a re-United States. 9/11 is the day the world changed. It is the day America embraced a metaphor of war. If we are open to truth and reconciliation, we may one day be able, once again, to embrace peace.

With the prospect of a new president ahead of us, a new election, a new beginning, we are poised for change.

WE MUST BE PREPARED FOR BATTLE!

This may be the end of the American Experiment. Our Egalitarian Ideals, our basic freedoms, the very democratic system itself, are all under peril. The Administration of George W. Bush has expanded the powers of the executive branch, committed us to endless war, invoked torture, spied on Americans, manipulated the press, stifled dissent, installed incompetence, used propaganda and secrecy to shield themselves from accountability, helped subvert the democratic process, and enriched their friends at public expense.

Checks and balances: Invoking unending 'unitary executive' powers, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, have unconstitutionally upset our traditional American system of checks and balances. They have also invoked secrecy and national security to illegally avoid the call to testify, and thus avoid justice and accountability.

Money and Debt: Using illegal war as a profit center, President Bush has enriched war profiteers, using no-bid contracts and mercenary warriors to commit war crimes against innocents in our name. These international corporations, like Dick Cheney's Haliburton, Kellogg Brown and Root, and Blackwater, have used bribes and the revolving door of our corrupted government to ensure their fortunes, while avoiding any legal accountability by moving their illicit enterprises overseas. The republican administration has spent trillions in privatizing the essential services of government, and in doing so have run up increasing gigantic budget deficits, borrowed $trillions in public money, created a national debt so great that our children, grandchildren, and their children will be enslaved paying down its interest. The unprecedented corruption and profiteering have destroyed the value of the US Dollar and brought ruin on our economy.

Traitors and Torture: Using secret illegal spying techniques such as warrant-less wire-taping and fishing through the email of US Citizens, the George W. Bush Administration has broken its oath to uphold the constitution and committed treason. In exposing US Operatives like Valerie Plame, and abusing their powers by attacking diplomats like Joe Wilson, the executive branch knowingly put Americans in danger and gave support to our enemies, while committing our soldiers to illegal and unending wars. The use of torture to extract information from otherwise innocent people around the world, in secret prisons, using the inhuman techniques of our adversary, has done irreparable damage to the cause of freedom and justice in the world, and destroyed America's reputation, dishonored our forefathers, and damaged our moral authority. The damage to our national security may be immeasurable.

THIS IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THE UNITED STATES.

Will the next President of these United States be prepared to GIVE UP the WAR POWERS expanded by Bush?

Will the next President be prepared to correct the wrongs done by George W. Bush?

Will the next President of the U.S. have the courage to end American Torture, to stop the End of America?

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in common: their gender and their good looks. :)You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .Thanks, Anne

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child's favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she's like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won't vote for her can't quit smiling when talking about her because she is a "babe".

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is "pro-life". She recently gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.She is savvy. She doesn't take positions; she just "puts things out there" and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin's kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She's smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today's surplus, borrow for needs.

She's not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren't generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren't evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the "old boy's club" when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of "old boys". Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal--loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State's top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn't like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the "old boys' club" when she dramatically quit, exposing this man's ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the "bridge to nowhere" after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects--which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance--but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as "anti-pork".

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her "Sarah Barracuda" because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah's mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as "AGIA" that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned "as a private citizen" against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State's lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior's decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there's a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

*"Hockey mom": true for a few years *"PTA mom": true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since *"NRA supporter": absolutely true *social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional). *pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it. *"Pro-life": mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down's syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation *"Experienced": Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000. *political maverick: not at all *gutsy: absolutely! *open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions. *has a developed philosophy of public policy: no *"a Greenie": no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR. *fiscal conservative: not by my definition! *pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards. *pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents *pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla's history. *pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn't make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you Google my name (Anne, last name redactedAlaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I've always operated in the belief that "Bad things happen when good people stay silent". Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don't have a job she can bump me out of. I don't belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that's life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah's attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can't recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall--they are swamped. So I can't verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my "about 5,000", up to 9,000. The day Palin's selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90's.

TOGETHER YES WE CAN have the most awesome political beach party in San Diego history! OK, San Diegans its summer and time to do what we do best: BEACH PARTY! Come boogie board, surf, snorkel, ocean kayak, skim board, play beach volleyball, swim, bbq and rangin BONFIRE @ La Jolla Shores! Don't forget your shades, sunblock, beach umbrellas, chairs, tables, towels and a light jacket and change of clothes for the bonfire. Come out and meet Obama supporters from all over the county!

The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President (Paperback)
by Vincent Bugliosi (Author), Molly Ivins (Foreword), Gerry Spence (Author)

Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (Paperback)
by Mark Crispin Miller (Author)

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (Hardcover)
by Andrew Bacevich (Author)

The Dark Side - Jane Mayer

Find out about "Learned Helplessness"

Standard Operating Procedure

Right is Wrong - Ariana Huffington

The Post American World

The Revolution: A Manifesto - Ron Paul

What Happened - Scott McClellan

Fire-Breathing Liberal - Robert Wexler

Blackwater: Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill

Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian

“Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman” by Mary Tillman

Imperial Life inside the Emerald City - Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Zeitgeist: The Movie - 2007 by Peter Joseph

This blog was inspired in 2007 by Peter Joseph's movie Zeitgeist. Watch the first two below, then to prepare for the 2010 release of the third in the series: Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. This should be interesting.